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[1995hoo]

Right, my point was simply that I've never heard of anyone refer to it as "Crain Highway." In other words, you have some roads where people use the name and/or the number. Route 50 in the Virginia suburbs is a good example—some people say "Route 50" and others say "Arlington Boulevard." I've never heard anyone use "Crain Highway"; every time I've heard anyone refer to any segment of that road, it's been by whatever route number applies to the specific stretch.

[froggie]

Right, my point was simply that I've never heard of anyone refer to it as "Crain Highway."

I have on occasion, though I also worked in PGC.  Bob Marbourg has also used it on the air…

[cpzilliacus]

Right, my point was simply that I've never heard of anyone refer to it as "Crain Highway." In other words, you have some roads where people use the name and/or the number. Route 50 in the Virginia suburbs is a good example—some people say "Route 50" and others say "Arlington Boulevard." I've never heard anyone use "Crain Highway"; every time I've heard anyone refer to any segment of that road, it's been by whatever route number applies to the specific stretch.

I have heard the name Crain Highway used, albeit infrequently, and probably more to refer to the Md. 3 and Business Md. 3 segments in Anne Arundel County.   Crain Highway is so named to honor Robert S. Crain, who advocated for the construction of a highway between Southern Maryland and Baltimore.  There is a Crain Highway Monument (Adobe Acrobat .pdf) in the median of Old Crain Highway in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County.

[oscar]

I mentioned in a post last month (which I've deleted, in favor of this one) several new signs reflecting the recent I-695 designation for parts of the 11th Street Bridge and the Southeast Freeway.  Since then, I went back to take some pictures, as well as nail down information on exit numbering.

All photos were taken July 5, 2014.  I'm not expecting additional signage changes, except on a still-being-rebuilt segment of I-695, and hopefully to fix some "what the food were they thinking?!" exit numbers on I-395.



The first of the new signs on I-395 eastbound, at the Potomac Park exit (exit 2), shows three exits you can use to reach Nationals Park, and that two of them are from I-695.



The corresponding sign on DC 295 shows two exits for National Park, from different freeways (one you go straight onto I-295, the other you take I-695). 



Back to eastbound I-395, this sign at the 12th Street NW exit (exit 3) shows the next three upcoming exits, and that one of them is a left exit onto I-695.



The sign on the left, on the 7th Street NW overpass, has been changed to eliminate one confusion but add another.  The sign used to incorrectly direct traffic heading to the south (House of Representatives) side of Capitol Hill to stay in the #2 lane, rather than the #4 lane as the next set of signs correctly shows.  Now the sign tells House-bound traffic to just use I-395.  I wish they'd move the sign to the right over the #3 lane, next to the sign over the #4 lane for the exit to continue on I-395 through the Third Street Tunnel, but at least the new sign steers all Capitol Hill-bound traffic into the right lanes. 

However, the new sign says the House exit is 2B, which is not only inconsistent with the next sign assembly that says that is exit 6, but also is out of sequence with I-395's other exit numbers.  This is just the beginning of some daffy new exit numbers.  EDIT:  But the corresponding House exit on in the other direction on I-395, coming out of the Third Street Tunnel, is now numbered 2B as well.  (I didn't notice any other exit number changes, yet, in either direction of I-395 from the tunnel to New York Ave., though I might've missed one due to sun glare.)



This next sign assembly, photographed from the westbound I-395 exit to 6th Street NW, shows I-695 straight ahead, and that I-695 will take you to both I-295 and DC 295.  But the exit is identified as exit 2A.  This is out of sequence with I-395's other exit numbers, which eastbound are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 (plus others in the Third Street Tunnel).  The logical number for the I-695 left exit is 7, and I don't understand why DDOT didn't go with that.

The exit sign for South Capitol Street shows that as exit 1A, which makes sense since it is the westernmost exit on I-695.



Similarly, this set of exit signs on westbound I-395, just after leaving the Third Street Tunnel, shows the left exit to I-695 as exit 2A.  IIRC, the old sign for the left exit used the more sensible exit 7 numbering.

====

There are also new posted exit numbers for I-695.  These all look reasonable.

Eastbound:

1A -- South Capitol Street

1B -- 6th Street SE

1C -- 11th Street SE (new exit, which apparently will be the tie-in to the bypassed old segment of the Southeast Freeway once it's rebuilt as a boulevard)

2A -- I-295 southbound

2B -- DC 295 northbound

Westbound:

EDIT: 1C -- left exit for Martin Luther King Ave. SE, just after the I-295/I-695 split

2 -- M Street SE

unnumbered -- I-395 north and south (this might be fixed later, after ongoing reconstruction on WB I-695 is done).

[cpzilliacus]

I mentioned in a post last month (which I've deleted, in favor of this one) several new signs reflecting the recent I-695 designation for parts of the 11th Street Bridge and the Southeast Freeway.  Since then, I went back to take some pictures, as well as nail down information on exit numbering.

DDOT just installed a sign on westbound I-695 (Southeast Freeway) for the exit to I-395 northbound - the control city is Baltimore. 

Are there plans to revive I-95 through D.C. that I missed?

[oscar]

I mentioned in a post last month (which I've deleted, in favor of this one) several new signs reflecting the recent I-695 designation for parts of the 11th Street Bridge and the Southeast Freeway.  Since then, I went back to take some pictures, as well as nail down information on exit numbering.

DDOT just installed a sign on westbound I-695 (Southeast Freeway) for the exit to I-395 northbound - the control city is Baltimore. 

Are there plans to revive I-95 through D.C. that I missed?

Hmm.  I thought D.C. was trying to remove all the old signs using Baltimore (or New York) as control cities for the SW/SE Freeway, replacing them with local destinations like Capitol Hill, as part of an effort to discourage through traffic cutting through the city.

Do you recall seeing an exit number on that new sign?

[cpzilliacus]

I mentioned in a post last month (which I've deleted, in favor of this one) several new signs reflecting the recent I-695 designation for parts of the 11th Street Bridge and the Southeast Freeway.  Since then, I went back to take some pictures, as well as nail down information on exit numbering.

DDOT just installed a sign on westbound I-695 (Southeast Freeway) for the exit to I-395 northbound - the control city is Baltimore. 

Are there plans to revive I-95 through D.C. that I missed?

Hmm.  I thought D.C. was trying to remove all the old signs using Baltimore (or New York) as control cities for the SW/SE Freeway, replacing them with local destinations like Capitol Hill, as part of an effort to discourage through traffic cutting through the city.

Do you recall seeing an exit number on that new sign?

No, but I will look the next time I am by there (which is pretty frequently).

[vdeane]

I mentioned in a post last month (which I've deleted, in favor of this one) several new signs reflecting the recent I-695 designation for parts of the 11th Street Bridge and the Southeast Freeway.  Since then, I went back to take some pictures, as well as nail down information on exit numbering.

All photos were taken July 5, 2014.  I'm not expecting additional signage changes, except on a still-being-rebuilt segment of I-695, and hopefully to fix some "what the food were they thinking?!" exit numbers on I-395.



The first of the new signs on I-395 eastbound, at the Potomac Park exit (exit 2), shows three exits you can use to reach Nationals Park, and that two of them are from I-695.



The corresponding sign on DC 295 shows two exits for National Park, from different freeways (one you go straight onto I-295, the other you take I-695). 



Back to eastbound I-395, this sign at the 12th Street NW exit (exit 3) shows the next three upcoming exits, and that one of them is a left exit onto I-695.



The sign on the left, on the 7th Street NW overpass, has been changed to eliminate one confusion but add another.  The sign used to incorrectly direct traffic heading to the south (House of Representatives) side of Capitol Hill to stay in the #2 lane, rather than the #4 lane as the next set of signs correctly shows.  Now the sign tells House-bound traffic to just use I-395.  I wish they'd move the sign to the right over the #3 lane, next to the sign over the #4 lane for the exit to continue on I-395 through the Third Street Tunnel, but at least the new sign steers all Capitol Hill-bound traffic into the right lanes. 

However, the new sign says the House exit is 2B, which is not only inconsistent with the next sign assembly that says that is exit 6, but also is out of sequence with I-395's other exit numbers.  This is just the beginning of some daffy new exit numbers. 



This next sign assembly, photographed from the westbound I-395 exit to 6th Street NW, shows I-695 straight ahead, and that I-695 will take you to both I-295 and DC 295.  But the exit is identified as exit 2A.  This is out of sequence with I-395's other exit numbers, which eastbound are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 (plus others in the Third Street Tunnel).  The logical number for the I-695 left exit is 7, and I don't understand why DDOT didn't go with that.

The exit sign for South Capitol Street shows that as exit 1A, which makes sense since it is the westernmost exit on I-695.



Similarly, this set of exit signs on westbound I-395, just after leaving the Third Street Tunnel, shows the left exit to I-695 as exit 2A.  IIRC, the old sign for the left exit used the more sensible exit 7 numbering.

====

There are also new posted exit numbers for I-695.  These all look reasonable.

Eastbound:

1A -- South Capitol Street

1B -- 6th Street SE

1C -- 11th Street SE (new exit, which apparently will be the tie-in to the bypassed old segment of the Southeast Freeway once it's rebuilt as a boulevard)

2A -- I-295 southbound

2B -- DC 295 northbound

Westbound:

unnumbered -- left exit for Martin Luther King Ave. SE, just after the I-295/I-695 split

2 -- M Street SE

unnumbered -- I-395 north and south (this might be fixed later, after ongoing reconstruction on WB I-695 is done).

Perhaps they're in the process of converting to mile-based numbers?

[Alex]

Looks like I have to rephotograph DC again...

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post: The most dangerous intersections in Washington

The District Department of Transportation just released a big report on traffic accidents in D.C. from 2010 through 2012. We mapped the intersections where the most crashes were reported during those three years.

The blue pins mark the 20 intersections where the highest number of crashes took place. These intersections are in each quadrant of the city except Southwest, with six east of the Anacostia, just one west of Rock Creek, and the other 14 in between.

[cpzilliacus]

WUSA-TV (Channel 9): DDOT accused of creating dangerous road conditions.

AAA is accusing the Metropolitan Police Department and the D.C. Department of Transportation of creating dangerous conditions for drivers, all in an effort to generate more revenue from speed cameras.

This all came to light after a traffic engineer decided to go public after witnessing something he says he's never seen in his nearly 60 years on the job.

"I believe this is my duty as a citizen to come forward. I've been doing this all my life," said traffic engineer Martin Wallen.

A few weeks ago, Wallen says he spotted a concrete barrier blocking the shoulder on I-295 and he showed WUSA9 pictures to prove it. He believes the barrier was erected to protect a speed camera, not drivers.

[SSOWorld]

Quite odd that AAA speaks against this since they're venture into the insurance industry has taken them 180 to support low speed limits...

[oscar]

Quite odd that AAA speaks against this since they're venture into the insurance industry has taken them 180 to support low speed limits...

But if the increased speed enforcement is mainly by speed cameras, with tickets issued to vehicle owners rather than drivers, that means few or no additional points on its members' driving records, and so little/no excuse for AAA to jack up their premiums. 

[ixnay]

There is a Crain Highway Monument in the median of Old Crain Highway in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County.

The link does not work for me.  I'm getting "The address is not valid".

ixnay

[cpzilliacus]

There is a Crain Highway Monument in the median of Old Crain Highway in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County.

The link does not work for me.  I'm getting "The address is not valid".

Fixed it.

[Doctor Whom]

DC is apparently renumbering the exits on I-295.  Last weekend, I took I-295 to Suitland Parkway, and some (not all) of the signs for exits 3A and 3B had been changed to 4A and 4B.

[oscar]

DC is apparently renumbering the exits on I-295.  Last weekend, I took I-295 to Suitland Parkway, and some (not all) of the signs for exits 3A and 3B had been changed to 4A and 4B.

Thanks for the report.  I'm in a brief break between trips, won't have time to check out anytime soon the newest exit renumberings on I-295 and elsewhere in D.C., but it sounds like this is a moving target and DDOT won't be finished for awhile.

[cpzilliacus]

WTOP Radio: Woman gets tickets for license plates that don't exist

Since 2010, a Maryland driver has been getting parking tickets in the mail from D.C. for different cars with a vanity plate, none of which belong to her.

Amy Mohney, of Burtonsville, is an accountant for the Food and Drug Administration. She owns Maryland license plate CPA-0061. However, the license plate on each of the tickets she's gotten were for a car with Maryland tags 0061 - - no letters, just four numbers.

Over the last four years, she'd occasionally get tickets in the mail for that license plate. Each listed a different type of car, but each listed 0061 as the license plate. The D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles, which is responsible for adjudicating all tickets issued in the District of Columbia, made each her responsibility.

"There must be thousands of combinations of three letters and 0061 -- why me? I don't understand why every ticket written to 0061 would get assigned to me. It's just not right," says Mohney.

Maryland officials were equally baffled. The Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) told WTOP Ticketbuster that not only did those plates not belong to Mohney -- they didn't belong to anyone. Records indicate the plates haven't been active for at least 15 years.

[oscar]

DDOT just installed a sign on westbound I-695 (Southeast Freeway) for the exit to I-395 northbound - the control city is Baltimore.

Answering my own question about this post above -- limping home earlier this evening from a trip out of town, I noticed the new sign has an "exit 1C" tab.

Exit 1C is also posted on the left exit to Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, from the ramp from DC 295 SB to I-695 WB.  Maybe 1C for the MLK exit is intended as an exit from DC 295, rather than I-695?

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post: A month later, no clues in Ronald Kirby’s murder

Anne Haynes has been thinking about going solo on the trip she and her husband planned to take to Antarctica in January. The books she’s been reading on grief say it’s good to get away.

She’s been reading poetry, too, a reminder of the love poems she and Ronald Kirby read to each other early in their romance. She wants to hold on to everything about him — she even hopes police eventually will be able to return the clothes, glasses and shoes he wore the day he was killed.

Could the City of Alexandria police be on to something regarding the murder of Ron Kirby?

Washington Post: Same gun may have been used in three Alexandria slayings, police say

News regarding the murder of Ron Kirby and two other persons in Alexandria. I am not using the phrase "good news" because there is no such thing when it comes to murder of human beings.  If the police have their man, then he will not be killing anyone else at least.

Charles Severance indicted on murder charges

A man who for months has been the focus of police investigations into three high-profile slayings in Alexandria has been indicted on murder charges, prosecutors said.

Charles Severance, 53, is in jail in Loudoun County awaiting trial on a gun possession charge. The Alexandria indictment contains ten charges, including two charges of capital murder and one charge of first-degree murder in the deaths of Ruthanne Lodato, Ronald Kirby and Nancy Dunning.

“This has been a complex and time-consuming investigation that has spanned almost 11 years,” the Alexandria police said in a statement.

Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter does not intend to seek the death penalty, his office said in a statement. The maximum sentence Severance could face, should he be convicted on any of the murder charges, is life in prison.

The last of the three murders occurred in February, when music teacher Ruthanne Lodato was slain in her home. A caregiver who survived that attack helped police create a sketch of the killer.

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post: Withering inspector general report criticizes D.C. parking and traffic ticketing

In Washington, D.C., where issuing traffic citations is a $179 million-a-year business, drivers get speeding tickets for violations they don’t commit and for vehicles they’ve never owned.

Those are among the findings in a 115-page audit of the three city agencies that issued nearly 2.5 million parking and traffic tickets in fiscal 2013, according to a withering report issued Monday by the D.C. inspector general.

The report portrays the District as the Wild West of traffic enforcement when compared with neighboring jurisdictions and the states, with a shortage of regulations, a legion of ticket writers often confused about the rules, “arbitrary” decision-making about who gets some speed-camera tickets and parking-meter monitors who get called on the carpet if they don’t write enough tickets.

[agentsteel53]

heh, the one time I got pulled over in DC, I was clearly in the wrong (I ran the first of two closely spaced lights; it was red and the next one, maybe 50 feet away, had just turned green) - and I was let off with a verbal warning.

[cpzilliacus]

WTOP Radio: MPD changes ticket policy after OIG report

WASHINGTON -- The Metropolitan Police Department amended part of its ticketing policy after a report released Monday criticized a practice that "led to erroneous ticketing."

The issue is known as a make-model mismatch, which is when the type of car in a speed or red-light camera ticket does not match the car in the DMV record.

In D.C., MPD policy was to issue the ticket to whoever owns the license plate, according to a report from the Office of the Inspector General.

An example in the MPD's training guide shows a ticket for a Lexus, then a Virginia DMV profile that shows the same license plates belonging to a Ford.

"If the vehicle tags do not match as seen here, PLEASE APPROVE," the manual instructs reviewers, including the capital letters. "The owner may have swapped tags. These are okay to issue." it reads.

However, the inspector general's report points out while some reviews at MPD follow this advice, others disregard it and void the ticket automatically.

[cpzilliacus]

heh, the one time I got pulled over in DC, I was clearly in the wrong (I ran the first of two closely spaced lights; it was red and the next one, maybe 50 feet away, had just turned green) - and I was let off with a verbal warning.

Most Metropolitan Police Department-D.C. (MPDDC) officers do not like to spend the time it take to issue a written ticket.

IMO, that is one of the reasons the automated program has grown so much (and gotten out of control, as described by the D.C. Inspector General).

[1995hoo]

Dr. Gridlock has a rather scathing analysis of DC's speed camera placements: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/wp/2014/09/11/location-always-important-in-placing-d-c-speed-cameras/

An excerpt (boldface added) follows. Citing a school that's been closed as a reason for a speed camera makes their motivations all the more transparent.

Since the District began the speed camera program in 2001, it always has been about specific locations. That includes the request from the D.C. Council in 2013 that the District Department of Transportation coordinate a study to determine the relationship between traffic safety and the location of the cameras, either installed or proposed—a grand total of 295 locations at the time of the study.

The purpose, as the study noted, was “to instill public trust that speed cameras are installed by the D.C. government to improve safety and not just increase local revenues.”

After an evaluation of the 295 sites, the District gave itself a perfect score, according to the findings, released in January. The agencies involved were able to justify every single, existing, planned or proposed location for traffic cameras. That’s remarkable. Even Mary Poppins was only “practically perfect.”

Turns out perfection isn’t that hard to achieve. Let’s look at one of the proposed sites, the 100-200 block of Kentucky Avenue SE. The avenue links East Capitol Street in the north with Pennsylvania Avenue in the south. The posted speed limit is 25 mph, with one travel lane in each direction.

The thing is, there’s no evidence that speeding is a chronic problem at this location. “The mean speed is less than the posted speed in both directions at this location,” the researchers said. Data showed a low number of crashes.

Don’t despair. We’ll find a reason yet.

....

“There are four schools in the area: Hine Junior High School, Watkins Elementary School, International Graduate University and Payne Elementary School.” Hine is half a mile away, but why quibble? It closed a few years ago. Payne, at least, is still open and about a five-minute walk away on the south side of C Street SE.

Conclusion: “Although the speed data analysis showed low travel speeds and the crash data analysis showed a low number of crashes in this area, there are other factors that reflect a safety concern. Due to the specific site characteristics of a residential area, the proximity of school zones, and the pedestrian generators, there is a nexus between traffic safety and speed camera at this location.”

Nexus, shmexus. It’s a stretch.